Sun City was once called “a great social experiment.” How insightful. In the coming months, we will be attempting to recreate a similar exercise. We will be doing it on Facebook, a medium not usually compatible with storytelling.

Our story travels well beyond the white walls of the community. Del Webb’s journey was legendary. While he often gets credit for building Sun City, he was not the genius behind it. His life’s work was the genesis for it. Virtually everything he did was the inspiration for what has become his greatest legacy.

We will take you along the path that paved the way to building Sun City. We will showcase the 18 years through buildout. By story’s end, the museum will be opening our new addition. If you stay with us, you will have a far better appreciation for how special your museum is.


This amazing fountain greeted the 100,000 visitors to Sun City opening weekend. It left no doubt, Del Webb was the man behind the plan and his word was golden.

We will do a weekly segment with lead-ins on Facebook and finish the story on the museum’s site. We will provide links and pictures, many you have never seen before. It will be different, but as lovers of history, we think you will find it intriguing.

Don Tuffs is president of the Del Webb Sun Cities Museum. He put together a committee to explore taking the museum to a whole different level. His goal was to create a 5-year strategic plan.

There are any number of moving parts, and one of them is to enhance our social media presence. This is the “low hanging fruit” and the one we felt was the quickest to achieve.

We know we have an amazing collection; one that exists nowhere else in the world. As awesome as the museum is, we are limited in showing it. In the next 5 years, we hope to make available at least 50% more of what we have buried in closets, cupboards and cabinets.


The country of the 1960’s was rife with land scams, especially Arizona. There was massive promotional efforts to create excitement over Sun City’s opening. Everything centered around capitalizing on Del Webb’s reputation as an honest builder, his quality of work, and his integrity.

This exercise will be a joint venture with several of us working on it. Board members Steve Held and Paul Herrmann will be handling the technology/posting, while Linda Borton will be setting up pictures to be posted. Bill Pearson will be doing the writing and I apologize in advance for anything I say that either offends you or is historically questionable. I’m not a writer, but love story telling.

Our goal is simple; we know the Webb/Sun City story is amazing. There is no one better equipped to tell it than those of us at the Del Webb Sun Cities Museum. Those before us have done a brilliant job in collecting, preserving and promoting the museum.

Now we are focused on taking it to the next level. The story of the first age-restricted community in the country and the man and the company behind it will come to life in ways that will captivate your imagination and grow your appreciation. We look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions.